Spielberg's Eye

ENLARGE

Zina Saunders

By

David Mermelstein

Feb. 20, 2013 5:36 p.m. ET

Santa Monica, Calif.

Nearly every film directed by
Steven Spielberg
since "Schindler's List" (1993) has radiated a distinctive luster, a kind of visual autograph. For that, audiences—and Mr. Spielberg—can thank
Janusz Kaminski,
a Polish-born cinematographer who got his big break shooting that picture. It won seven Academy Awards, including one for cinematography, and Mr. Kaminski gained a second Oscar five years later, for Mr. Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" (1998). His sixth and most recent Oscar nomination is for "Lincoln," Mr. Spielberg's latest film. If he wins—the Oscars are on Sunday—Mr. Kaminski, age 53, will become the 10th cinematographer to have earned three or more Academy Awards.

Mr. Spielberg first noticed his work in 1991, when he saw "Wildflower," a television movie shot by Mr. Kaminski. Impressed, the director asked him to shoot a Civil War drama he was producing for TV, "Class of '61," which aired on ABC in 1993. "Apparently he was looking at the dailies, because he offered me 'Schindler's List,'" Mr. Kaminski recalled earlier this month at an editing facility where he was finishing a financial-services commercial. "That's the thing about Steven: It doesn't matter what someone's credits are; it's the work that speaks to him."

Though the grimly potent "Schindler's List" was famously photographed in black-and-white, the work that followed, shot in color, was an appealing mix of popcorn movies ("The Lost World: Jurassic Park," "War of the Worlds," "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"); breezy comic-dramas ("Catch Me If You Can," "The Terminal"); sentimental fables ("A.I.: Artificial Intelligence," "War Horse"); and more serious fare ("Amistad").

In all these films, viewers will find evidence of Mr. Kaminski's commitment to his core principles—elegant manipulation of the camera to reveal character and the play of light and shadow on both animate and inanimate objects. He is not reticent about making strong visual statements with the tools available to him, but he prefers achieving maximum impact with minimal fuss. In "Lincoln," he faced unusual challenges, because the focus was almost exclusively on
Tony Kushner's
literate script and
Daniel Day-Lewis's
uncanny portrayal of the president. "It really was like watching a play," Mr. Kaminski said of the shoot. "It wasn't like a regular Spielberg movie. You had to photograph it without trying to put in too much cinematic panache. The camera doesn't move—well, it does move, but the moves are very delicate."

Cinematographers execute a director's vision more than anyone else on set. But though the relationship between them is close, Messrs. Spielberg and Kaminski are forever finessing aspects of their respective roles. "Steven is amazing with composition and the camera," Mr. Kaminski said. "That's how he tells the story, through camera angles. But we collaborate. The borders kind of bleed in terms of who's doing what with visual storytelling, but the lighting is defined by my aesthetics and desires. Sometimes, I attempt to place the camera, and sometimes I'm surprised by how he sees the scene. But we're mostly on the same page. I don't participate in direction or change an actor's performance, but we do collaborate a lot about the placement of the camera, and I like that."

To help make "Lincoln" into what he calls "a timeless movie," Mr. Kaminski adjusted the lighting to de-emphasize the bright colors of the historically accurate sets and costumes. "I felt you had to pull back a bit, so as not to jar the audience," he said. "One way of achieving that is to not light the walls. They were not 100% unlit, but enough so that the colors of the walls and carpets were muted. You have to think about the philosophy of light. It's supposed to be motivated by natural sources. But if that logic doesn't work for dramatic reasons, you adjust. For example, the gas lamps of Lincoln's time wouldn't give enough illumination for the cameras, which are not as sensitive as the eye. You cannot photograph a Spielberg movie using just candlelight. Stanley Kubrick did some shots like that, but with special lenses and just in certain scenes. If you light with just an oil lamp, you will see only the lamp and the face next to it. So I used the natural light in the scene and moved the film lights back. It's a trick, a cheat. But it works."

Mr. Kaminski is one of only two living cinematographers to have won Oscars for both black-and-white and color movies (the 91-year-old
Haskell Wexler
is the other), and he appreciates each mode for its relative merits. To emphasize that point, he invokes a comment made during the filming of "Schindler's List," when an older actor insisted that screen performances were better before color film dominated moviemaking. Mr. Kaminski disagreed. "In color movies, actors are not always the main objects of illumination," he explained. "Sometimes they're not lit much at all, and audiences start appreciating things that aren't the most important to the story. In black-and-white films, there's no color to distract viewers. Consequently, actors in black-and-white movies are the main focus of the frame because they are often the brightest element in the frame. Because you're not lighting the actors in color films, some attention is drawn away by that absence."

In addition to his work as a cinematographer, Mr. Kaminski also directs films—he is currently in postproduction on his third feature. Though these low-budget efforts serve an important creative function, anyone worried that he will abandon his day job need not fear. "When I work as a cinematographer, it feels very comfortable and familiar," Mr. Kaminski said, "and I need more stimulation in life. Cinematography is like driving a car; directing is like driving a motorcycle. But directing is also scary, because you don't have Steven to make those decisions for you. It's a really lonely profession, because everybody's looking to you for answers. I don't know if I'm good at it, but I like it. But I will always be a cinematographer. I want to work with Steven for as long as I can walk on the set or get someone to push me around in a wheelchair."

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